NewsWrap
for the week ending August 1st, 1998
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #540, distributed 08-03-98)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Jason Lin,
Graham Underhill, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]
Anchored by Leo Garcia and Cindy Friedman
Latvia has lowered the age of consent for sex between men from 18 years to
16, to match the age of consent for heterosexual acts. The move came as part
of a reform of the criminal code which treats same-gender sex acts the same as
heterosexual ones. The only remaining distinction is harsher penalties for
heterosexual rape than for same-gender sexual assaults.
Equalization of the age of consent in Britain has been put off until the
next legislative session. Although the move to lower the age of consent for
sex between men from 18 to 16 had passed overwhelmingly in the House of
Commons in June, it was rejected by a large margin in the House of Lords in
July. Home Secretary Jack Straw won the agreement of Members of Parliament
and of gay and lesbian activists to drop the amendment to the Crime and
Disorder Bill so that the larger measure could be enacted before the
legislative session ended. In exchange, the government itself will introduce
a single-issue measure in the House of Commons after October that the House of
Lords will not be able to stop.
Possibly to sweeten that deal, Britain's Blair government will also be
proposing repeal of Section 28, a decade-old measure prohibiting local
governments from "promoting homosexuality," following publication of a White
Paper this week. Long a top target of gay and lesbian activists, Section 28
has served to stop things like school-based counseling programs for gay and
lesbian youth, even though there has never been a prosecution under its
provisions.
Meanwhile, gays and lesbians continued to create controversy, as bishops of
the Anglican Church moved into the second week of their global decennial
Lambeth Conference in Britain. The conference subsection on human sexuality,
where traditionalist bishops outnumbered liberals by two-to-one, has prepared
its official report for the conference to debate in the coming week. While
admitting division within the group, the report calls for a moratorium on any
further ordination of gays and lesbians and on any further blessings of same-
gender relationships. Gay and lesbian activists are disappointed and angry,
but outside the formal structure of the conference, they have made some gains.
Although an officially scheduled presentation by ordained gay and lesbian
priests had been cancelled by a vote of the human sexuality subsection, this
week the panel was held unofficially, receiving a warm reception from most of
some 135 attendees. And last week Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey for
the first time showed an interest in meeting with Britain's Lesbian and Gay
Christian Movement, which had sought to dialog with him without success for
seven years.
And while same-gender couples can't be blessed by the Church of England,
they do have the blessing of Britain's Independent Television Commission. The
ITC rejected 29 viewer complaints against an ad for Impulse Body Spray which
showed two men walking off arm-in-arm. That was the nation's first TV ad to
portray a gay couple and it began airing in May. The Commission said that it
"does not have a policy of forbidding homosexual references in advertising."
And those offended British viewers should brace themselves, because a much
more explicit portrayal of a gay couple has been approved for late-night
broadcast by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center, to begin airing this
month. A one-minute spot to encourage condom use for prevention of HIV shows
two men kissing, undressing and caressing each other.
Ads supporting a November ballot initiative against same-gender marriage
have already begun airing on radio in Hawai'i. They're one of the subjects of
a complaint to the state's Campaign Spending Commission that was filed this
week by the ballot measure's opponents, Protect Our Constitution. POC charges
that three religious right groups have failed to register with the Commission
as political committees, something the law requires for any group that
receives or spends at least $1,000 on a campaign. The ads' sponsor, the
Hawai'i affiliate of James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus on the Family, claims
the ads are only for education and information, not political advocacy. But
POC believes they cross the line when they proclaim that a 'no' vote would
"redefine marriage to include homosexual couples," when in fact a 'no' vote
merely maintains the status quo, in which the state constitution has nothing
to say on the question. POC is also complaining that the Virginia-based
Christian Coalition and its Hawai'i affiliate are using mailings and the
Internet, not only to solicit contributions of more than $1,000, but to
solicit them from corporations and even foreigners, in violation of the law.
Another anti-marriage group, Hawaii's Future Today, was already the subject of
complaints by Hawai'i activist William Woods, who believes the group has
already passed on more than $100,000 to a political committee it constructed
called Save Traditional Marriage 98. Overall campaign spending on the ballot
measure is expected to run to several million dollars, second only to
Hawai’i’s gubernatorial race.
On the mainland, the religious right scored a victory in the U.S. Congress
this week. An amendment to a major spending bill by California Republican
Frank Riggs to deny federal housing funds to any city requiring its
contractors to extend spousal benefits to domestic partners, squeaked by with
a two-vote margin. There is currently exactly one city which fits that bill,
and it's San Francisco, which could lose more than $200-million as a result.
Because no similar amendment appears in the Senate version, there's still hope
that it will be dropped in a House-Senate conference committee.
There are also some indications that the recent spate of anti-gay rhetoric
and activity by Republicans may abate. Although it's generally believed that
those attacks are designed to mobilize voters for a November election
predicted to have a record low turnout, the "moral" issues will tend to drive
moderates away from Republican candidates. That was the finding of a poll
commissioned by the Republican Leadership Council, which specifically targeted
77 Congressional districts where the races were close in 1996. The poll
indicated that the Republicans could actually lose their Congressional
majority unless they focus on more popular issues, and also found that more
than 60% of Republican respondents opposed excluding gays and lesbians from
leadership roles in the party. Only 12% of respondents saw "moral" issues
like homosexuality and abortion as their top priorities, and more than 80% of
that group were already committed to a Republican candidate, whether or not
those issues were central to the campaign.
The North Carolina Supreme Court this week denied a gay man custody of his
sons because of his relationship with his partner, and its reasoning in doing
so could reopen a large number of custody disputes even among heterosexuals.
When Fred Smith's wife Carol left North Carolina in 1991 for the man she later
married, Smith retained custody of their two boys. It was only after Smith's
partner Tim Tipton moved in with him in 1995 that the mother sought custody
for herself, with the help of the Family Research Council of North Carolina.
A trial court turned the children over to her, but an appeals court ruled in
favor Smith. Although the boys have thrived in their care, and although Smith
and Tipton have been quite discreet in front of them, the state's high court
objected to the fact that the men would sometimes kiss in sight of the boys,
and to the idea that even behind closed doors they were having sex in the same
house. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's Beatrice Dohrn said, "Non-
gay parents are not judged negatively for showing affection in front of their
children or for being honest with them. For any parents, those are healthy
examples to model to children." The attorneys for both sides in the case
agreed that the ruling was broad enough to apply to non-gay as well as openly
gay households.
The biggest courtroom loss this week was sustained by two British
transsexuals. Despite an earlier near-unanimous decision in their favor by
the European Commission on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights
ruled this week that Britain need not issue them new birth certificates
showing their post-surgical names and gender. Britain is the only member of
the European Union which does not reissue birth certificates to transsexuals,
claiming that the birth certificates are a matter of historical record.
Kristina Sheffield and Rosa Horsham had argued that this interfered with their
privacy and family life, in violation of the European Convention on Human
Rights. Neither can marry in Britain, but the court found that nations may
restrict marriage to a union between a man and a woman "of biological origin."
The forced revelation of their transsexual status whenever they are required
to show their birth certificates the court deemed to be only an
"inconvenience" rather than a denial of privacy rights. However, the court
did note that with growing acceptance of transsexualism, European nations
should keep this area of law under review.
And finally ... the latest Republican to come out in favor of equal
treatment for gays and lesbians is former President Gerald Ford, now 85 years
old. He also predicted that if the right wing controls the party, it will be
defeated, while success depends on taking a middle road that makes room for
views like his own. Ford also expresed support for abortion rights and
government funding for the arts. If that leads his fellow Republicans to
doubt his "family values," he says, "I'll put mine up to theirs any day."